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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

U.S. Marks 25 Years Since 9/11 Terrorist Attacks; Trump Hails U.S. Heroism At Pentagon 9/11 Event; Saudi Arabia Shuts Down Pipeline After Attack Causes Fires; Trump Heads To Ireland To Meet Leaders, Attend Golf Event; U.S. Senate Race Tightens In Battleground North Carolina; Aired 1-2a ET

Aired September 12, 2026 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles, where it is still September 11th.

"The Story Is" America remembers 25 years to the day, the world changed forever. We reflect on the September 11th attacks as a new generation of learns about one of America's darkest days.

"The Story Is" pipeline shutdown. Saudi Arabia cutting off a critical oil pipeline as an Iran backed group opens up a new front in the war.

And "The Story Is" game set match. U.S. opens men's final is set after two Americans clash on the biggest stage in tennis Friday night. Journalist broadcaster Rachel Nichols joins us in studio to talk about a historic weekend ahead.

But we begin with this. 25 years after the attacks on September 11th changed the course of American history, America pauses to remember. From Ground Zero to the Pentagon and Shanksville, communities across the country gathered to honor the victims and salute the heroes. New York held its annual celebration on the plaza where the Twin Towers once stood. 9/11 families read nearly 3,000 names of those who died in the attacks.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Emmanuel Akwasi Afuakwah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alok Agarwal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mukul Kumar Agarwal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joseph Agnello.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Scott Agnes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joao Alberto da Fonseca Aguiar, Jr.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Robert G. McCarthy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stanley McCaskill.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Katie Marie McCloskey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Juliana Valentine McCourt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ruth Magdaline McCourt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joseph Roberto.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leo Arthur Roberts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Michael E. Roberts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Michael Edward Roberts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Walter Robertson Jr.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: At Ground Zero, a rare gathering of America's living former presidents, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden underscored the weight of this day. Vice President JD Vance also there for that ceremony. President Trump decided to give a speech at the Pentagon. He attended the ceremony there alongside the First Lady, Melania Trump.

President called the 9/11 attacks a, "Moment of immense and horrible evil that forced the nation to unite against terrorism."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: With the events of that morning 2,977 beautiful souls were ripped from our world, and many more died in the weeks and years after. Today, we renew the sacred oath that we first swore and their names a quarter of a century ago, we will never ever forget. That's why we fight today.

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MICHAELSON: Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley is joining me now live from Austin, Texas. Welcome back to "The Story Is."

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yeah. Thank you.

MICHAELSON: As, of course, we know, George W. Bush was a very young President when this attacks happened only eight months into his presidency. Afterwards, his approval rating shot up to 90 percent, which is almost impossible to think of today, 25 years later, anybody getting 90 percent. But he left office with his approval rating in the low 30s. What do you think is the lesson that other presidents can learn from his initial successes and later his failures?

BRINKLEY: Well, it's an important and interesting question. I mean, George W. Bush was a -- when he ran, he was a compassionate conservative. But when 9/11 happened on his watch, that moment when he was with Andy Card in Florida and he was reading with school children, it -- you could see the look on his face and that he realized down that he was a wartime president, that this was -- there was going to be a response to Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden. It was -- and at that point, he ran on an ardent foreign policy. We call Neo-Wilsonianism or going into the Middle East and going after the perpetrators in it, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq.

But America -- didn't it went very big. The whole country pulled together, the bullhorn moment you're showing right now when he threw a pitch out at Yankee Stadium. But over time, it just corroded because of the duration of the larger Middle East, wars and the fact that Afghanistan and Iraq didn't go the way that we hoped things would.

MICHAELSON: The country was so behind him. The Republican Party especially behind him.

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But by the time that Donald Trump ran for President, the Republican party was not. He ran against his brother, Jeb Bush, and defeated him, promising no more foreign wars, promising an American first policy, promising that the Middle East leads to endless wars. And yet here we are with President Trump starting a war in Iran that seemingly has no end date.

BRINKLEY: Well, that's that forever wars, and that's we -- there was during the Vietnam, there was a lot of talk about what are the limits of American intervention. And sometimes we constantly want to be the global power that we are, and we want to go in different places at different times, but there isn't a public appetite for it. There's a -- you can see how in a short period of time, President Trump's having a hard time getting people behind what's going on in Iran. There's confusion, mis-messaging.

We've got to remember, though, George W. Bush won two terms, but he barely won that second term. And Iran was a big and Iraq and Afghanistan was just been part of the axis of evil that we've been dealing within the 21st century. And I thought it was just so solemn today to see all the former presidents there in New York and listening to President Trump at the Pentagon just remembering that this is the date of the 21st century in America.

There have been a lot of innovations, a lot of big elections, but there's something about today that just was sobering beyond belief. And then we try to find the best around our flag and our first responders and their families. And every year, more and more intelligence information comes out about what had transpired.

MICHAELSON: Well, and each one of those presidents had so much part of their presidency was a reaction to it. And even Bill Clinton, who, of course, had a lot of intelligence about this before it even happened, all of them have these deep connections to what happened here. I know in the past, you've described the 20th century as the American century. This attack was literally the beginning of the 21st century. How do you describe the 21st century? If the 20th century was the American century, what's the 21st?

BRINKLEY: Well, we -- the Cold War was so dominant in the second half of the 20th century, and it seemed America was victorious in that regard, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The 1990s by and large was a boom period due to technology, due to the fact that democracy was on the march. But that 2000 election, Al Gore, who was really anchored a lot around climate change and George W. Bush who wasn't interested in that as being the main issue, Kyoto and the like.

And then boom 9/11 happened, and George W. Bush with certainty decided that this was what he needed to do. And the country wanted a response, but I think going into Iraq is -- was confusing because there were no weapons of mass destruction.

MICHAELSON: Yeah.

BRINKLEY: And then, we have a hard enough time teaching geography in American schools, but the whole Middle East map and all the ancient rivalries that go on there and all. Sometimes, many Americans just want to not get involved in misadventures. On the other hand, Operation Neptune Spear by Barack Obama and Admiral McRaven was the killing of Osama bin Laden.

This was a remarkable event that all Americans wanted to get the bad guys, and we did in the end.

MICHAELSON: Yeah. And it'll be interesting to see what historians say the 21st century will be all about. I guess that story isn't completely written yet. Douglas Brinkley joining us from Austin, Texas. Thanks so much for sharing your perspective as always. We really appreciate it.

BRINKLEY: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: Speaking of that region, Saudi Arabia has shut down a key oil pipeline after it came under multiple attacks. Country's energy ministry says the pipeline was shut down as a precautionary measure. U.S. officials says an early analysis found that projectiles struck pump stations along that pipeline. It's not clear who was responsible, but the official added that the attack is believed to have involved drones coming from Iraq. A number of people were injured.

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The East West pipeline has been a lifeline for oil supplies during the war with Iran. CNN's Kylie Atwood explains the importance of this particular pipeline and has the latest on that strike.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, this is a really critical moment given that this pipeline, which has been, such a lifeline for Saudi Arabia after, the strike was effectively closed, they used this East West pipeline to get their oil out to the Red Sea which was the only other waterway, via which they could actually export that oil. Now with that pipeline shut down because of these strikes that came through, according to the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs now confirming our reporting that those were drones coming from Iraq, presumably from Iranian backed militia in Iraq. We'll have to watch and see how long this pipeline is shut down for.

And this comes as just yesterday. It is our reporting that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had called President Trump and urged him for U.S. strikes on the Houthis. President Trump declined to carry out those strikes, but we do know that the United States in recent weeks has provided additional targeting and intelligence support to those Saudi strikes going after the Houthis. So obviously, not the U.S. carrying out the strikes on their own, but providing background support to the Saudis as they have had to mount those offensive strikes against the Houthis who have gotten increasingly involved in this expanding Iran war.

So the key question now is when is this East West pipeline going to be back and online? The Saudi energy ministry said that this was a precautionary action that it took to shut down the pipeline, but we still don't know what the overall damage assessment actually is and how long it's going to take to get this up and running. Of course, the background being now that the Red Sea shipping, is coming under new scrutiny given the Houthis and the rise that they have had in recent days, of course, taking a critical island and a critical port city in the Red Sea.

MICHAELSON: Thanks to Kylie Atwood for that. The attack on the pipeline came as Iran backed Houthi militants in Yemen captured a strategic island in the Red Sea. Forces seed Perim Island just a day after taking control of the nearby port city of Makkah. The capture of Perim and Makkah gives the Houthis a greater ability to threaten shipping in the Red Sea, and it potentially gives Tehran more leverage in the war with the U.S.

President Trump is making his way across the Atlantic right now. He is heading to Ireland for a bit of international diplomacy and a bit of golf. The President's plane took off from joint base Andrews late Friday evening in Dublin. He'll meet the Irish Prime Minister and President separately as well as business leaders as the U.S. ambassador's residence.

Trump could face some protests while he's in Ireland. Later, he heads to the western part of the country for the 2026 Amgen Irish Open, which is being held at his own resort. He discussed his trip in the recent GOP midterm convention in Texas with reporters on the tarmac.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I guess they're having the Irish Open. Great summit at one of my places, but we're having a lot of meetings with European leaders and others. So it'll be a very interesting time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel confident?

TRUMP: We have a lot of pride. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel confident, Mr. President, that you got your message across to voters in Dallas? TRUMP: I think I did. Yeah. I think Dallas was a tremendous success. The -- I would call it the convention. I think we could call it midterm, but whether it was midterm or it was certainly midterm, but it was a tremendous success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Still ahead on "The Story Is" Democrats are hoping to win back control of the senate by flipping seats in key battleground states like North Carolina. That race may not be as easy as previously thought. CNN's Manu Raju in the Tar Heel State next.

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MICHAELSON: The U.S. senate race in North Carolina could be one of the democrats' best chances to flip a senate seat in November's midterm elections as they try to regain control of congress. The recent polling shows the race is actually closer than previously thought.

CNN's Manu Raju went to North Carolina and spoke with both the Republican and Democratic candidates on the ballot.

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MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): He will do and say whatever the President tells him. Former two term governor Roy Cooper is one of the prized Democratic recruits of this election cycle, facing off against former RNC Chairman Michael Wadley. But as many Democrats have long assumed, he'll easily be able to flip the open North Carolina senate seat. It is Cooper who is now warning that the battleground has shifted in a state that President Trump won three times.

RAJU: There's this view in Washington that you kind of have this race in the bag. I mean, it -- but the polls actually show that this is actually a tightening race.

ROY COOPER, DEMOCRATIC U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Really is.

RAJU: So what has changed here on the ground?

COOPER: Well, nothing's really changed that we didn't anticipate. North Carolina hasn't elected a democrat in almost two decades and only two in almost the last 40 years. So it's tough for a democrat to win a U.S. senate seat in North Carolina. This is going to be anywhere from a 1 percent to 3 percent race. Someone asked me what my biggest concern was, and I said that people take this race for granted.

RAJU: Complacency.

COOPER: Complacency. RAJU: There have been polls that have shown Cooper well ahead in this race, but at least one poll from High Point University actually showed this race to be much tighter. A five point race, that's within the margin of error, meaning there's no clear leader in this race.

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COOPER: They've been pounding us with false negative ads for, since July, and the race is tightening just as we knew it would.

RAJU: Republicans are outpacing Democrats on air with more than $50 million reserved in the final eight weeks, exceeding every state other than Ohio.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We paid the price when Roy Cooper put criminals before the innocent.

RAJU (voice-over): Watley is going after Cooper's record on crime, including over a court ordered settlement that Cooper reached as Governor with civil rights groups to reduce the prison population during COVID.

RAJU: Do you have any regrets by the way you handle that?

COOPER: This is something that the state had to do because the court ordered it. And I think a lot of people believed, if you ask the plaintiffs, they were very frustrated that more weren't released. And this was, something that we wanted to do to make sure we work to protect the public. Public safety officers made decisions about this. They followed the lead of President Trump's team. The problem here is that they are lying about all of these cases that they're trying to connect to this.

RAJU: Cooper has tried to shift the focus to Whatley's record.

COOPER: Michael Whatley actually appointed a convicted child molester who served six years in prison on the sex offender registry above the objections to many Republicans in his party. Because to a position that would have access to children and teenagers. That's what we need to be talking about.

RAJU (voice-over): After Cooper stumped in the Charlotte Suburbs, I caught up with Whatley, about a 120 miles southeast in a Democratic stronghold.

RAJU: Roy Cooper's going after you about Harvey West, the appointment of him for the North Carolina GOP. He's, of course, a convicted sex offender. What do you say to him? And you regret how that was handled.

MICHAEL WHATLEY, REPUBLICAN U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Well, I didn't hire the guy. Absolutely did not hire the guy. He was a volunteer with the party beforehand. But I think when we talk about crime, Roy Cooper is the one with the record. Roy Cooper is the one who let 4,200 criminals out.

RAJU (voice-over): But as Cooper is banking that voters will punish Whatley over high cost caused in part by Trump's tariffs and war with Iran.

COOPER: Now if we defeated inflation, I do not think so.

RAJU (voice-over): Whatley has been more careful about Trump's record.

RAJU: Since the President came into office, inflation is still higher than when he first came in in January 2025. I'm wondering specifically when it comes to the issues of Iran and tariffs. Should he change course at all given how much more people are paying here in North Carolina?

WHATLEY: Well, what I'm saying is inflation is a whole lot less than it was under Joe Biden, right?

RAJU: Are you a 100 percent behind him when it comes to Iran and tariffs specifically?

WHATLEY: Well, what I would say is that that we cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon that they can develop and deploy.

RAJU: And tariffs too. You're a 100 percent behind him on his tariffs policy as well.

WHATLEY: What I would say is we need trade policies that are going to help North Carolina farmers, manufacturers, and small businesses.

RAJU (voice-over): Manu Raju, CNN, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

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MICHAELSON: What I would say is let's talk to our panel. Former California State Assemblywoman, Christy Smith, Democrat, Matt Klink, Republican strategist. Welcome back to both of you. Matt, it is clear that Roy Cooper is overperforming where a Democrat should be, right? And Michael Whatley is underperforming where a Republican should be in that sort of state.

MATT KLINK, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I don't know. I don't -- let's look at -- I'll frame it a little bit different. Roy Cooper is a two-term Governor in the state of North Carolina. He's won twice. That interview that Manu just did with Roy Cooper, that does not sound like a candidate who's got a big lead. That sounds like a candidate who looked at his internals and says, holy smokes, Batman. This thing is a lot closer, and people need to start to pay attention.

MICHAELSON: How do you see this race?

CHRISTY SMITH, FORMER CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLYWOMAN: Yeah. I think Roy Cooper's early lead was largely based on his service as Governor in the state. I think people really knew what he was about, trusted him to deliver for the state. A U.S. senate race is a very different thing, so he's got to be mindful of that gap closing. But what I will say is, he's a fantastic retail politician. You looked at that framed in his shot, make stuff cost less. It doesn't get any better for Democrats right now, running on the issue of the cost of Trump to the whole country. And if he stays to that messaging and can get off his back foot with these spurious attacks from Whatley, I think he'll do OK.

MICHAELSON: Yeah. This is one of the -- I mean, if the Democrats are going to win back the senate, they got to win.

KLINK: It's a must have.

MICHAELSON: They got to win North Carolina. They also have to hold Georgia, where John Ossoff is running. That also should be a pickup opportunity for Republicans. Polls seem to show he's significantly ahead. Interestingly, Kamala Harris, the former Vice President of the United States, is going to be there this weekend campaigning with Ossoff. Some candidates have said, we don't want you there, but she's welcome here. Why?

SMITH: Yeah. She is welcome. And the Vice President has been very upfront about saying she's going to go to places where she's welcomed and where she knows she can make a difference.

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Georgia is definitely one of those places, where she knows she can make a difference. So even if you just look at Atlanta and the larger Atlanta region, what came out of her loss in this last presidential was the fact that black women, black voters writ large, but black women voters particularly really felt betrayed by the Democratic Party. And there's a lot of ground to regain there and trust to regain, so her showing up and being in that state, I think, benefits Ossoff and probably a lot of down ticket races. But it's good that she's doing it. She's welcome. She's a great campaigner. They're going to be a great pairing.

MICHAELSON: You think that this isn't just about Ossoff. It's about something else.

KLINK: No. I think look. The I mean, Ossoff, first of all, Ossoff has gone from someone who was a question mark who got in on a special election and the December election that gave the Democrats the majority to someone in the Senate, to someone who is up by anywhere from six to eight points. He has been talked about as a potential 2028 contender. And Kamala Harris is coming in and going to Fulton County, which is one of the large -- has one of the largest black populations in Georgia. Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Mayor of Atlanta, is running for Governor in a too close to call race against the Republican by the name of Rick Jackson. And they need that black enthusiasm to turn out for Ossoff, because they'll vote the top of the ticket. That's the -- I mean, that's the tell why she's going there.

MICHAELSON: And, of course, she did not win the State of Georgia as a presidential nominee. She did as a Vice Presidential nominee with Joe Biden. As we know, that was a very, very close race at the time. But we're in an interesting moment now because Labor Day is over. We're really in the swing of things, and there's a finite amount of money for both parties. And at this point, some candidates get the resources and some candidates don't. And what it's like to be in one of these battleground resources races where maybe you wish you got a little more resources. SMITH: Yeah. Of course.

MICHAELSON: What is that like as a candidate? And take us behind the scenes of how that really works.

SMITH: Yeah. I think what most people don't realize is that the NRCC and the DCCC, the main money movers in these house races, are basically incumbent protection organizations first and foremost. So they're going go to their front line districts where they've got members who are going to have a tough time getting reelected. And with some of the redistricting across the country, there are definitely many of those. Resources are going to be directed there first. They want to keep members they've already got in the house.

And then the question becomes, how are the decisions made about the rest of the races? Now some will argue, and I think I'm one of them, that politics plays a much greater role than maybe the numbers, do in these cases. And I think you see sometimes resources flowing away from candidates where they have concerns that they are maybe too far left. We see that happen or that, it's a race that they think that the rest of the state will carry. But that happens in California a lot. People go, oh, well, the California Democrats show up. We don't need to invest in California. So I think there are a lot of reasons why certain races don't get invested in. Candidates are running a lot of races when they're running. You're running in your home district. You're also running in Washington D.C. with those people who make those decisions.

You're trying to make sure and make the case for your own race and for investment in your own race, but always knowing that even if you're a red to blue, you're coming second after frontline members who need to get reelected.

MICHAELSON: You think Democrats left you -- let you down?

SMITH: I think they didn't know how much Republicans were going to spend against me. We were talking about this earlier. Kevin McCarthy was a just a different kind of majority leader, and he that man could raise money and move it in place where he thought it could be useful, and he definitely did.

MICHAELSON: How does it work on the Republican side?

KLINK: It's much the same, although I think that for this cycle, we have the super PACs. And Trump's got $0.5 billion. He's already chunking money into Texas and other places. Republicans will not be short on cash, but they have a strong headwind. But now it -- it's all about, look there are people in Washington D.C. who have a like a scorecard, and they're trying to figure out what the -- how does the math work? And if some state's too expensive and they can get more bang for their buck in two other states, they slide that money across.

MICHAELSON: That's what I think a lot of people don't know is really going on. Some folks say, we've already lost that race two or three weeks before it happens.

SMITH: Yeah.

KLINK: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: And then the candidate is basically stranded.

KLINK: You get a couple of bad internal polls and the money just poof. It's gone.

MICHAELSON: And so there's a lot of the experts have already decided who's going to win and who's going to lose. Meanwhile, let's talk entertainment because we're in Hollywood. And I want to give a shout out to my friend Elizabeth Wagmeister who's going to be hosting CNN's red carpet Emmy show along with Ramin Setoodeh, the variety Editor in Chief. It's going to be happening live on the CNN All Access app starting at five o'clock eastern, two o'clock here on the West Coast. Television's biggest night.

We're going to have a lot of those stars with Elizabeth live on this show on Monday night on "The Story Is" after the Emmys.

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So it's the big celebration of television. So we end with this. Matt Klink, what is your favorite TV show of the year?

KLINK: Oh, man. Hands Down Lioness. I love it. It is such a thriller. I'm on the edge of my seat every Sunday that I watch.

MICHAELSON: Lioness is great on Paramount Plus with Zoe Saldamna, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman. Must be one of the most expensive shows just for those three.

KLINK: With all the stuff that blows up.

MICHAELSON: It blows up. It's amazing. Taylor Sheridan. Yeah. Your favorite TV show.

SMITH: Loved Widow's Bay.

MICHAELSON: Widow's Bay on Apple TV.

SMITH: It is so hard to do horror comedy well, and they really nailed it. It was a great show.

MICHAELSON: That is, one of the potential front runners for best comedy along with hacks. And then the front runner for best drama is the pit, which is my favorite show.

KLINK: I've liked that. Yeah. Makes me glad that I never have to be there.

MICHAELSON: Oh my god. The work that they do is unbelievable. The pit film, by the way, across --

SMITH: I was just saying, all still filmed in LA.

MICHAELSON: Across the street from us here on the Warner Bros. lot. Christy Smith, Matt Klink, thank you so much for joining us.

Coming up next on "The Story Is" the U.S. Federal Reserve could be ready to raise interest rates for the first time in three years. This video looks familiar. Just ahead, we'll break down what's driving the rise in America's inflation rate.

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MICHAELSON: Inflation in the U.S. rose in August as costs went up 0.4 percent month-on-month. That could push the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates next week. CNN Senior Reporter Matt Egan breaks down what that means.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Inflation heated up in August, and the fingerprints from the Iran war were all over this report. So consumer prices were up by 0.4 percent on a monthly basis. That might not sound like a lot, but that is a big jump. A jump that is not considered healthy, and that was enough to unexpectedly lift the annual inflation rate to 3.4 percent. That's well above the 2 percent that the Fed is targeting.

So let's look at the trend for monthly inflation so far this year. This is roughly when the war with Iran started. You can see inflation really heated up because oil prices skyrocketed. Gasoline got much more expensive, and it's inflation stayed hot for a few months. And then there was this dip in gasoline prices and oil, and we had a decline in inflation and then a pretty subdued increase in July. But look at this now. It's clearly moving in the wrong direction. So what's behind this?

Well, the news wasn't all bad, right? Some things are actually getting cheaper, right? Look at this. Eggs, 23 percent less expensive than this point last year. Chicken as well, down by 2 percent. Car insurance, 5 percent cheaper. That is nice to see. Used vehicles as well. However, if you want to fill up that car with a tank of gas, it's going to cost you a lot more. 27 percent increase in August airfare because jet fuel has skyrocketed due to the war with Iran. Airfare, 23 percent more expensive.

And then you can also see the impact from all of the demand for technology being driven by the AI boom. Computers up by 8 percent and software increasing 25 percent. That's the most since the government started tracking. Now what's really important to remember is these prices are all from the month of August, and we know that energy has only gotten more expensive this month.

Gas prices, $4.30 a gallon nationally. That's not just a three month high. That's the highest price for gasoline ever during the month of September. Diesel, $606 a gallon, the first time it's ever been above $6 a gallon, 14 percent more expensive than a month ago. Gas gets all the headlines because of the consumer, the psychological impact, but this diesel price is an even bigger problem when it comes to inflation because diesel is the workhorse fuel. It's the one that's powering the trucks, the trains, tractors, construction vehicles, and the boats at the heart of the modern economy. And the fact that you've got more expensive gas and diesel suggest that inflation could stay hot and get even hotter in the months to come.

Now Wall Street is reacting to all these numbers because we've gotten not just one, but two hot inflation reports in the last few days. A week ago, the market thought it was about a 50-50 chance whether or not the Fed would raise interest rates at the meeting next week. But look at this. Now 87 percent of a rate hike, that means that many investors and Fed watchers, they believe that Fed Chairman Kevin Worsch, who was nominated by President Trump, will deliver the first interest rate hike in three years, all designed to try to get inflation back under control.

Now the message from Main Street is one of deep frustration, right? University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey out showing that the preliminary reading for September is historically low. This chart goes back to 1980, and you can see how low consumer sentiment is right now. This is the second lowest reading since University of Michigan started tracking 70 years ago. And University of Michigan said the sentiment fell among Democrats and among Republicans in large part because of concerns about the cost of living.

So, look, bottom line, you put this together, and you have sentiment down, inflation up. That's never a good recipe for this economy nor for the political party in power heading into the midterms. Back to you.

MICHAELSON: Thank you so much. Next on "The Story Is" history at the U.S. Open tennis championship. Rachel Nichols live with us when we come back.

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MICHAELSON: The finals are now set for the U.S. Open tennis tournament, and it will be a historic weekend. Ben Shelton defeated fellow American Francis Tiafoe in Friday semifinals. No American man has won that U.S. Open since 2003. Shelton is the first African American man to reach the U.S. Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972. On Sunday, he'll face the top seeded player in the tournament, German Alexander Zverev, for the title. For more, let's bring in Fox Sports Analyst, Rachel Nichols. Rachel, what a tournament. What a moment for America.

RACHEL NICHOLS, FOX SPORTS ANALYST: Oh my God. Tonight was incredible. And I have to tell you, I was covering tennis when the Williams sisters made their debut, each one of them, at the U.S. Open a few years apart. And it was rough, man. Like, the sport of tennis did not handle it well. There was so much veiled racism and so much of the criticism of them and the way other players treated them. It was tough to watch, and that's just infinitesimal compared to what these women actually experienced. And to watch that sport be dragged kicking and screaming into having more diverse players and have been there for that, to now watch what the Williams sisters wrought with women's tennis on that side, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, Sloane Stephens, right?

[01:45:00]

These women have all won the U.S. Open because they could see it with Venus and Serena, and they were inspired. This is what's going to happen out of tonight's match. It's not going to happen overnight. It takes a kid picking up a racket tomorrow, about 15 years to get to this level.

MICHAELSON: The Williams sisters may have helped to inspire them as well, most likely as well.

NICHOLS: Absolutely. Oh, these guys for sure. But I just mean that I think you'll see the effects of this match tonight. A dozen years, 20 years to come. I think it's that big.

MICHAELSON: Yeah. And Ben Shelton, 23-years-old. And you think about also the fact that they're playing on Arthur Ashe Court and his legacy.

NICHOLS: It's incredible.

MICHAELSON: There as well. And Ben Shelton has already beaten Carlos Alcaraz. You think he's got a real shot?

NICHOLS: I do. I do. Although he is not the best athlete in his immediate relationship circle, because that would be his girlfriend, Trinity Rodman, who is a stud soccer player. But, yes, I do think that he absolutely has a shot, and I'm excited to see it.

MICHAELSON: He's playing unbelievably, right now. Meanwhile, an interesting story. I want to put up the headline from the New York Times. The justice department opens an inquiry into the Clippers' dealings with star player. That star player being Kawhi Leonard. This is a story that led to the Clippers getting the biggest penalty in the history of the NBA. For people that may not be following it that closely, can you break it down, which is a complicated story really simply?

NICHOLS: Well, I'm very surprised to see this federal investigation or at least reports of it starting. This district attorney's office in particular has had its hand in sports a lot. They've investigated players who tipped gambling cases or bribing referees, but those things involve the general public. This story is about a team trying to circumvent the salary cap by paying a player under the table. Therefore, they're like, we can pay you more because we'll pay you under the table, and everybody else is adhering to the rules. That is a problem, and it's why it's that huge, penalty from the NBA.

It's harder for me to see what charges will come out of that. Lawyers I've talked to have said maybe some wire fraud if payments were done by wire or tax fraud if taxes were filed as classified as this when they were really this. Those are pretty minor white collar crimes, and they don't affect the public. So maybe they have something more. We'll have to find out. But it is certainly interesting that the U.S. government has now gotten involved. And the twist on it is that the NBA doesn't really get sued by its own teams because they've, made it they've agreed to the rules already.

They've agreed to we commit to this charter. We -- they've agreed to we do agreed to this discipline. So they don't really have the means to sue the NBA over this report even though that the Clippers have threatened to. Once there's a federal investigation, if it becomes more real, the Clippers are going to have more standing to go to a court and say, this isn't just about our private club. It is about something much bigger, and that could create a different problem for the NBA. It's an interesting situation.

MICHAELSON: And if there's anybody who has the means.

NICHOLS: It is Steve Ballmer, one of the richest men in America.

MICHAELSON: Right.

NICHOLS: Is the owner of the Clippers.

MICHAELSON: Who right now is kicked out of his own arena, not allowed to be around his team for the next year, which is not fun for him. Meanwhile, you're joining us as we all are thinking about 9/11. We all think of you, of course, as a sports reporter. But on 9/11, you were in New York, and you became a regular news reporter.

NICHOLS: News reporter. Yeah. I mean, I was working for the Washington Post, but in the New York bureau. The New York bureau was myself, a financial reporter, and a fashion reporter. The finance guy was doing what he would do on September 11th when these attacks occurred and the effect enormous effect on our government and our way of life. The financial reporter was out of town, so it was me who was walking down from where I was in Manhattan that day, down to Ground Zero. I walked the entire way down.

When I got to Times Square, I was met by a wall of people walking up. They were all sort of covered in gray soot, and I was the only one walking in the other direction. And I got down there at a time where they had not yet organized the police barriers for the media and the public and all of that. So I just walked right up to the site of where the amazing firefighters and rescuers were working, and then they closed the border.

And I didn't see another reporter anywhere, and I haven't heard of anyone else anywhere. So I may have been the only journalist who was there for those first critical 24 hours, and it stays with me to this day. It's incredibly affecting, and especially on this 25th anniversary. I can't tell you all of the little details that I still think about all of the time. There was a Burger King that was bombed out, but they were using it as a makeshift headquarters to organize things, and they were using the walk in freezer as a morgue for body parts.

I mean, it was those little types of things throughout the first 24 hours that I'm always going to remember.

MICHAELSON: And so much heroism. I'm sure you got to see that inspire you as well. [01:50:00]

NICHOLS: Well, it's incredible because, well, the Burger King got used for what I just described, the McDonald's, two doors down was being used as sort of a water and food and whatever for firefighters. And I was in there interviewing some of those guys, and someone rushes in, and they're like, we found someone. We found someone. And they all rushed out, and I followed them. And there was sort of an arm sticking out under the ripple. And, sadly, after they did, an hour or so of uncovering, it turned out to be just an arm. And that is really the story of what happened in the time I was there.

I'm sure you've seen people talk about the bucket brigades, because the rubble was about seven stories high, so they had to sort of bucket down. And that was because they thought they were survivors. They didn't want to bring in heavy machines because they thought they were survivors. There just weren't, and that was just crushing in the moment.

MICHAELSON: Well, we think about all those people, and we thank you for your reporting on that day. Rachel Nichols, always, appreciate your perspective. We'll be right back with more after this.

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[01:55:00]

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MICHAELSON: Gray skies over England were brightened by hot air balloons on Friday, part of an aerial festival called Icons of the Sky. The gathering showcased several unique balloons, including some shaped like animal faces. Over three days, balloonists take off at dawn and dusk in what is known as a mass ascent. Pretty cool looking.

Thank you so much, for watching "The Story Is" on this historic day and all week long. We hope you have a great weekend, and we're thinking about all those that were lost on 9/11 and all those heroes who've stepped up to help us all these years. We'll see you next week.